The present invention generally relates to computer systems, and more specifically to a system for converting voice messages to emails.
With the advancement of today""s technology, individuals are provided with many mechanisms for communicating between one another. For example, if Mr. Smith would like to communicate with Mr. Jones, he can pickup the telephone and place a call to Mr. Jones. If Mr. Jones is unavailable, an answering service, for example voice mail, will typically be available to allow Mr. Smith to leave a message for Mr. Jones.
Alternatively, if both Mr. Smith and Mr. Jones have access to email accounts, Mr. Smith may communicate with Mr. Jones by sending an email message to his email account. Thereafter, Mr. Jones can retrieve to email message and respond appropriately.
However, checking multiple areas of communication is a hassle and often results in dropped responses, and confused priorities. Thus, although the multitude of different communication mechanism provide users with many options for communicating, in certain situations the availability of different communication mechanism may actually delay or hinder how two individuals communicate. For example, suppose Mr. Smith would like to offer tickets to Mr. Jones for a sporting event that begins at 5:00 pm. Mr. Smith may call Mr. Jones at home to inform him that if he wants the tickets he must let Mr. Smith know by 3:00 pm, otherwise he intends to offer the tickets to someone else. However, even if Mr. Jones is currently working at the office on his computer, because Mr. Smith used a communication mechanism (the telephone) that is different than the communication mechanism that Mr. Jones was monitoring (an email account), if Mr. Jones does not return home until 4:00 pm, even if Mr. Jones would have like to have taken the tickets, he will have most likely missed out.
Based on the foregoing, it is clearly desirable to provide a mechanism for communicating between different communication mechanisms.
It is also desirable to provide a mechanism for reducing the need of checking multiple areas of communication.
The present invention comprises, in one aspect, a method for forwarding voice messages to an email account, including the steps of: retrieving a voice message from a voice mail system, wherein the voice message is associated with a particular user; encoding the voice message into a streaming media file; and automatically forwarding the streaming media file in an email message to one or more email addresses, wherein the one or more email addresses are associated with the particular user.
According to another aspect, a method for forwarding voice messages to an email account, including the steps of: retrieving a voice message from a voice mail system, wherein the voice message is associated with a particular user; converting the voice message into a text file; and automatically forwarding the text file in an email message to one or more email addresses, wherein the one or more email addresses are associated with the particular user.
The invention also encompasses a computer-readable medium, and an apparatus configured to carry out the foregoing steps.